stvn1974

If you killed a bunch of people, including kids, and got to come back as your young self force ghost you would have that smart ass smirk on your face too.

brayzie

Wasn't an argument by fans of the original trilogy that Jedi in the prequels shouldn't be dressed like old Obi-wan? Because in ANH he was obviously trying to be somewhat incognito on Tattooine by altering his name and wearing a cloak and outfit that would blend in with the locals.

I don't have a problem how old Anakin is dressed in the ending of ROTJ, because it makes sense like you said. But in hindsight, it's kind of dumb to have this mass murderer return as a Force ghost, smiling with Obi-wan and Yoda. Killing your evil boss and sparing your son shouldn't erase mass murder.

mcnabb

That is where the Prequels ruined the Anakin Skywalker character for me including the ending of ROTJ.

In 1983, Darth Vader was an evil guy, but you didn't know what evil he did. We know he turned to the Dark Side, but that scene where he killed all of the jedi kids in ROTS never sat well with me because there was no context to that since he just turned 5 minutes before? I could understand his motivations in AOTC because the Tuskens took his mom hostage, so there was atleast a context to him going apeshit and cleaning out their tribe.

It really goes to show that prequels rarely help a linear story that is being told, because everyone develops their own backstory that works for them. After watching ROTS, I wanted Anakin altogether out of the force ghost scene.

redcon1

Since Luke didn't know what his father looked like when he was younger, I always thought Luke would see Obi-Wan and Yoda ghosts and wonder "Who the hell is that other guy with them?"

resinrats

Maybe there are photos of Anakin Skywalker from back in the Clone Wars that Luke looked up so he knew what Anakin looked like.

Sean O'Hara

That's true even in the original -- the ghost of Annakin doesn't look a thing like the Mr. Potato Head under Vader's helmet. Either way Luke has to figure it out from the context.

Mike86

In the original Sebastian Shaw played him in the unmasking scene and the Force spirit scene though. I guess I could always tell they were the same person. He looked different mainly because Anakin's face was scarred/swollen presumably from being under the Vader helmet for so long, whereas in the Force spirit scene he looked healthier and had hair.

Solid Snake

Yeah. You could tell unmasked Vader was that fat white guy standing next to Yoda and Kenobi.

Shannon Nutt

What doesn't make sense is that Anakin gets to be a young ghost, but Obi-Wan and Yoda have to stay old.

I hope they do away with the whole Force ghost thing in the new movies. Just don't bring it up or mention it again.

TGM

I think the explanation was that their force ghost reverted to the last time they were on "the light side". stupid, but so was 99% of the OT changes.

Josh-da-man

Darth Vader is one of the many places the prequels stumbled.

We spent nearly three decades wondering what made Anakin Skywalker fall to the Dark Side. And the answer seemed to be that he was just an asshole. A selfish, pouty, spoiled, narcissistic asshole. The kind of person who makes everyone around them miserable and messes up everything they touch. ( Though it is kind of funny that a nice, sweet girl like Padme falls head over heels for Darth Asshole because that happens all the time in the real world. But I don't think that was Lucas' intent at all.)

In the OT we were told that Darth Vader helped the Empire hunt down and exterminate the Jedi. In ROTS, all he does is hack up a bunch of five year-olds. Maybe this was another one of Obi-Wan's lies designed to shield Luke from the truth? Still makes Annie come off like an asshole.

Which really makes Lucas' angle of the saga being about the "tragedy" of Annakin Skywalker ironic since there is very little tragedy there. He was always a prick.

RocShemp

What's even more frustrating is that all the political BS could have actually served a purpose had Anakin been older when he met Obi Wan. Originally, Qui Gon was meant to be the Padawan to an already Jedi rank Obi Wan. Had Anakin been older, he could have already been jaded over his life as a slave (instead of the wide eyed optimism that Lucas went with in Episode I) which could have grown into resentment towards the Republic. After all, to his eyes they would have been content to see the Outer Rim planets rot under the control of local crime bosses (like the Hutts on Tattooine). Then someone like Senator Palpatine, who claims he's championing for change in the Republic for the good of all, would seem very appealing to someone like Anakin. And, hey, all the endless political debates might not have been so pointless.

brayzie

Yup. He doesn't even kill any real Jedi in ROTS. I wanted to see Anakin hunting down Jedi. But to be fair to Lucas, it would be hard to create a Star Wars sequel that focused so much on Anakin hunting down and killing Jedi while still trying to make it commercially marketable to mainstream audiences. These days it's easier to imagine that after films like The Dark Knight, but back then commercial considerations were more limited.
I still think he should have spent more time on Anakin's evil deeds but I can at least see where Lucas was coming from when he made Episode III. I can't understand the other stuff though like making Anakin so whiny for the last two films.

Those are some good ideas. I'm kind of confused about Tattooine. In ANH it feels like the equivalent of the midwest with maybe a seedy part of town. But the Empire has a presence there, people are joining the academy there, and in a deleted scene Biggs is worried that the Empire will end up owning all the moisture farms and make the owners become peasants. But in ROTJ it seems like all of Tattooine is this unlawful completely dangerous place.

mcnabb

This should have been the main plot of Episode III.

-Episode I: 2 hours of Anakin/Obiwan friendship dynamic as Obiwan finds him and they battle to save Padme on Naboo. Anakin is 20 years old instead of 10 years old.

-Episode II: Anakin falls in love with Padme, and starts to become good friends with Palpatine causing a rift between Obiwan. He feels the Jedi are holding his abilities back as Palpatine promises him the world, and turns to the darkside at the end of the movie.

-Episiode III: The plot of this movie is a mysterious sith is killing Jedi one by one. Anakin goes around to different planets and starts taking out Jedi on missions from Palpatine, as he eventually takes out Mace. Once Kenobi/Yoda find out they wisk Padme and her twins off into isolation and Kenobi confronts Anakin while Yoda confronts Palpatine.

Heck, I wrote this in about 5 minutes so there is so much more I could flesh out from this story and the characters. Lucas had 20 years to write it!

stingermck

Totally agree ^^^ Anakin was way too young in the first movie.

mcnabb

And Lucas wanted to make the Sequel Trilogy leads teenagers too....

Timber

Well and Padme shouldn't die at the end of Ep III.

TGM

Yippppppppiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

joe_b

Fisher's daughter confirmed she's not playing Leia in a flashback scene:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BmFVniUl9gE?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

mcnabb

Could Carrie Fisher please stop doing the duckface with her lips in EVERY picture I see lately? This one isn't as bad as others, but I don't want to see a 60 year old Leia in TFA doing this face in the movie.

Solid Snake

She's the one I cringe the most in thinking how she'll be presented. She hasn't aged well.

Shannon Nutt

Yeah, I'm aware of that explanation...and, yeah, it's pretty stupid.

I think the real reason Lucas did it was to tie his prequels into the original trilogy. But then put Ewan McGregor in there as well. Of course, then you have to cut out Alec, which would have really been insulting.

Shannon Nutt

Particularly since Leia remembers her in Episode VI, and Lucas DIDN'T change that moment.

Maxflier

That was the biggest disappointment for me about Episode III, getting to see Vader hunt down and exterminate the Jedi is what I had been looking forward to. And instead we got Jedi getting shot in the back by stormtroopers...

TGM

the PT is such an insulting clusterfuck.

Lucas could have kept that birth scene exactly the same, but added a quick moment where Padme looks at baby Leia and their eyes linger on each other for like a second, and for whatever reason didn't get that opportunity to do so with Luke, like a Force imprint thing going on. Still stupid, but at least an attempt to make that line spoken by adult Leia in the OT make a little more sense.

But the reality is that Lucas just didn't care. He was too busy playing in his Adobe Paint sandbox to try and make any sense of the story or getting any quality performances out of the actors.